


Spiral

by Lobster



Series: A Year of Haymitch and Effie Drabbles [15]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Mental Illness, POV Female Character, Post-Mockingjay, love and support
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 22:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18949510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lobster/pseuds/Lobster
Summary: Fifty-two weeks, fifty-two prompts, fifty-two drabbles; this work is part of a series of Haymitch/Effie drabbles inspired by one-word prompts. This week's prompt: spiral.Effie's life is spiraling out of control. Haymitch helps her reign it back in.





	Spiral

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this one is posted a bit late. I was up until 3 am last night being sick. Thanks to Juxtaposie for the beta and all her help with this one! <3

It was a bad day. It was a bad week. It was a bad month. It was a bad year. Nothing was going right, or had been going right for Effie in what seemed like forever. Her world was closing in again, and it was starting with all the damn filth everywhere. Piles of books, tented here and there instead of put away neatly with a bookmark. Scuff marks and dirt tracked all over the carpet where Haymitch had forgotten to take off his boots when he’d come in. A dead flower amidst a bouquet he’d brought her. A shirt with a hole in it as she did the laundry. Ever since her captivity, things needed to be in their place and they never, ever were.

She attacked a bootprint on the floor with savage intensity, scrubbing at it with soap and water until every last particle of dirt was lifted from the carpet, mumbling under her breath the whole time. One of her nails broke off and a pinkish smear marred the carpet. She scrubbed even harder, intensely, until a large hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“You’re hurting yourself, princess,” Haymitch said gently, and led her over to the couch. He had left antiseptic wipes and bandages there and he sat her down and carefully began to clean up her damaged fingertips.

“I’m sorry I tracked mud in,” he said, holding her to his chest. She listened quietly to the sound of his heartbeat and tried to focus on his breathing, match it to hers. Count the number of heartbeats and think of something good.

“I have something for you,” Haymitch said, as she breathed into his shirt and said nothing, rubbing a piece of its fabric between her fingers. He scooted away a bit and set something in her lap. A drawing tablet and a pack of charcoal.

“I got it from Peeta,” he said. “You used to like to draw all those fancy outfits and tall buildings, remember?”

Effie remembered. It seemed completely disconnected from her current life. She slid a piece of charcoal out of the pack and shuddered at the way it marred her fingers. Then slowly she brought it to the paper and sketched the first thing she could think of. Spirals. Her life was spiraling down, down.

But spirals went two ways…

She turned to a blank page and began to sketch.


End file.
